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TEST REPORT
68
TELE-satellite International — www.TELE-satellite.com
8-input/1-output DiSEqC 1.2 switch
EMP-Centauri S.168
Eight LNB’s on
One Cable
There you are, proudly standing over the dish farm in your backyard. You pause to remember
how meticulously you aligned each one of them per fec tly with that particular satellite. And
each one has its own c able running into the house. That sure was a big hole you had to drill
through the wall of your house to accommodate all those cables.
Watching a satellite program isn’t that
much of a hassle either. It doesn’t t ake all
that long to switch from one cable to another
if the program you want to watch is on one of
the other satellites. You suddenly wonder to
yourself, “isn’t there a better way?” Actually,
yes, ther e is.
Wouldn’t it be nice to run a single cable from
all of these dishes to your house? Wouldn’t it
be nice if a single receiver could access each
of these dishes individually? EMP-Centauri,
based in the Czech Republic, has come up
with a solution to this dilemma with their new
S.168 DiSEqC 1.2 switch. Yes, you r ead cor
rectly…DiSEqC 1.2. But isn’t DiSEqC 1.2 for
antenna motor s? Normally it is, yes, but not
in this case.
At first glance, the S.168 looks like any
standard DiSEqC switch except that it has
eight input s and a single output. And of
course the “DiSEqC 1.2” logo printed on the
top quickly reveals that this is no ordinary
switch. The nine connectors are all in stand
ard female “F” format. Just like with other
switches, this one is also installed between
the receiver and the antennas. Its eight
inputs allow up to eight satellite antennas or
LNB’s to be connec ted.
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The switch can ac tually be controlled in a
number of ways. In addition to DiSEqC 1.2
operation, the switch can be controlled with
the DiSEqC 1.1 protocol. The S.168 switch
is even compatible with standard DiSEqC 1.0
commands but then only the first four input s
can be used.
Our antenna farm consist s of a 3-meter
(10-foot) C/Ku-band mesh dish pointed at
Galaxy 11, a 1.6-meter (5.3-foot) C-band
dish aligned with Intelsat 805, a 1.2-meter
(4-foot) Ku-band antenna pointed at Hispa
sat, a 90-cm (3-foot) Ku-band antenna aimed
at Telstar 12, a 76cm Ku-band antenna for
Telstar 5 and a small 20-inch dual feed dish
pointed at the Nimiq satellites.
The IF outputs fr om each of these anten
nas were connec ted to the eight inputs of the
S.168 switch. The output of the switch was
routed to the IF input on the satellite receiver.
The switch itself was installed in the antenna
farm so that the coax cables running to the
eight inputs of the switch could be kept as
short as possible for the sake of appear
ance. Make sure that the switch is located
in a weatherproof enclosure as it is not water
resistant.
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By now you’ve probably figured out that
the satellite receiver to be used must be
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TEST REPORT
TECHNICAL
DATA
Manufacturer EMP-Centauri, 339 01 Klatovy, Czech Republic
Fax +420-376- 323-809
E-mail sales@emp-centauri.cz
Model S.168
Function 8-input/1- output DiSEqC 1.2 switch
Operational Frequency Range 950-2300 MHz
Inser tion Loss 5 dB
Isolation 30 dB typ.
Power Consumption 50 mA
LNB Current 400 mA max
Ron Roes sel
TELE-satellite
Test Center
Nort h Ameri ca
69
www.TELE-satellite.com — TELE-satellite International
DiSEqC 1.1 and/or 1.2 compatible in order to
take full advantage of the capabilities of this
switch. For DiSEqC 1.1 operation, the uncom-
mitted port is set to 1 in the receiver’s menu
for inputs 1 thru 4 and to 2 for inputs 5 thru
8. The committed port is then set from 1 to
4 based on the input that is to be addressed.
For example, input 7 is addressed as uncom-
mitted por t 2 and committed port 3. The
S.168 was able to switch between all eight
inputs without any difficulties.
If the receiver does not support DiSEqC 1.1,
then DiSEqC 1.2 can be used to control the
switch. From the receiver’s point of view, the
S.168 switch is treated no differently from a
DiSEqC motor; the receiver should be set up
as if there were a DiSEqC motor connec ted to
it. Simply access the menu that contains the
receiver’s DiSEqC 1.2 motor control set tings
and treat eac h satellite antenna input as a
different position for the “motor”.
Starting with switch position 1, use the
receiver’s menu to “move” the antenna until
the signal str ength for the first dish rises sig-
nificantly. Stop moving, verify that the signal
quality is at maximum and store the posi-
tion. Repeat this procedure for the remain-
ing seven inputs until all the positions have
been stored.
Keep in mind that the scanning of the
inputs can take as long as one minute and
that the actual procedure for setting up
motor positions may differ from one receiver
to another.
Once the eight positions have been stored,
the receiver c an now access each of the
8-input/1-output DiSEqC 1.2 switch
Expert conclusion
+
The S.168 is the per fect solution for those that have a substantial
satellite antenna farm they can call their own and would prefer to have
only one cable routed to t heir receiver. Up to eight individual dishes
or LNB’s can be connected to this switch and then accessed individually by a DiSEqC 1.1 and/or 1.2 compatible satellite receiver. The
S.168 is also compatible wit h a standard DiSEqC 1.0 switch.
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The S.168 switch is not weather proof so if it is installed outdoors it must be placed
in a proper enclosure to protect it from the elements. When used as a DiSEqC 1.0
switch, only four of the eight inputs can b e used.
S.168 Outside of Its Protective Enclosure
switch’s inputs individually by “moving” to
the desired satellite dish. And unlike the
initial setup where the “movement” from
one antenna to the next took some time,
in normal operation there was no notice-
able difference in the time to switch from
one channel to another on different satel-
lites compared to using a standar d DiSEqC
switch. We switched back and forth bet ween
channels on Galaxy 11, Intelsat 805, His-
pasat, Telstar 12, etc. and in each case the
S.168 switch performed flawlessly.
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